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Ted Chang, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Quanta Computer, who was part of a delegation that visited Gothenburg in late April. Photo: Barry Li

Quanta: Gothenburg is a good location for business

From health gadgets and apps to smart hospitals, new technologies are transforming the health industry.The world’s biggest laptop maker Quanta Computer is one of the companies bringing new solutions to market.

By Business Region Göteborg

15 May 2018

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“We try and help people do more and better medical care services, by doing less,” says Ted Chang, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Quanta Computer.

Ted Chang describes Quanta Computer as a “strange” company. It has around 90,000 employees, yet few people are familiar with it, at least in this part of the world.

“Every third or fourth laptop is either designed or made by Quanta. If you are using an Apple Macbook, you are using a Quanta Computer’s product directly from our factory,” says Ted Chang.

Apart from working with some of the top tech brands, Quanta also works with innovative startups. It helps the company understand the future, he explains and ands add that Quanta itself is a 30-year startup.

“We keep transforming ourselves. The first 10 years we dedicated to the laptop PC, and the second stage was dedicated to virtual services over the cloud. Right now we try and integrate all of our technology as a solution, to solve human centric problems. One of the problems we identify is healthcare.”

In late-April, he and several of his colleagues were in Gothenburg for the city’s annual eHealth event Vitalis, where the company was among the exhibitors and presented its smart hospital and cloud-based tele-home care solutions.

Ted was also the keynote speaker of an investment and partnering seminar organised by Business Region Göteborg, Connect Sverige Region Väst and the European Business Angel Network. His talk was on the digitalisation and the future of the health industry.

“Patients go to hospital maybe once in the year. But with wearable Internet of Things you are actually collecting massive amounts of personal data all the time,” says Ted Chang.

This data is potentially useful not just for the patient but for healthcare providers in general who can use large amounts of actual data to identify trends and issues.

“It’s very important that you have reliable, scalable and also secure platforms on the back so you can manage all kinds of data and turn it into useful information, and apply human and doctor’s wisdom on top of that. Believe me, there will be more Internet of Medical Things in the market.”

“We try to identify what the problems are that we are trying to solve, otherwise it is only a bunch of useless hardware. Then we define what kind of application we need to serve people. Then using that we define the software, hardware, and integrate everything into a very solid solution.”

Ted believes that the new high speed 5G wireless networks will change many things. Traditional systems will cloudify in the future and more and more artificially intelligent computing will happen in the device itself, instead of in the cloud. In addition, he thinks that augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) offer exciting possibilities for future health care.

“People don't want to spend time in hospital. They want to be in their homes where they are most comfortable.”

One of the projects Quanta is working on in the Greater Chennai area in India is how to scale up the services inside hospitals and expand the services to rural areas to take care of more people at home.

“The most important thing, is that it’s not just about technology, it’s about humans’ behaviour and importantly what kind of business model can enable everything and push everything to the market.”

On Gothenburg

During the Gothenburg visit the Quanta Computer delegation met with executives from West Sweden’s top innovation organisations, such as Sahlgrenska Science Park, the BioVenture Hub and Swelife, as well as Business Region Göteborg, where the delegation learnt more about the Gothenburg region’s innovation ecosystem and its opportunities for international companies.

“Gothenburg is well positioned in the Nordics and close to northern Germany. I’ve been impressed by some of the region’s tech innovations, not to mention the open mindedness and welcoming attitude of the people,” says Ted Chang.

“We all feel that Gothenburg is a good location for finding business opportunities and cooperative partners in the Nordic area.”

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Life science and healthcare

For companies in the life science sector, the US is generally the most important market. Breaking into that market alone is not always simple, but acting as a group can make things considerably easier. The 3rd Nordic American Life Science conference will be held on 28-29 November in New York. The event is expected to gather over 120 company representatives from the USA and the Nordics.

The ongoing digitalisation is upending traditional business models. Meanwhile, new digital platforms are opening up new possibilities for companies. In West Sweden, one example of this is a new virtual incubator that now complements the region’s life science start-up scene.

When the BIO International Convention gets underway on 4-7 June in Boston, USA, Business Region Göteborg will be on hand showcasing the region and its life science expertise. But competition is stiff with around 16,000 attendees from over 70 nations.

As the healthcare industry undergoes sweeping change, interest in digital health and healthtech is growing rapidly. Many of the industry’s key players and startups are set to take part in Vitalis, Scandinavia's largest eHealth event, held in Gothenburg on 24-26 April.